The best way to find a modern hidden camera?

[Noob of the Maths]

TL;DR Summary

Modern, hide

Considering that all the tips of youtube does not working for a modern camera... because no visible light, very very small size, the camera of other phone to does not work...

what its the best form for this case? I am very intrigued, it would be like finding a needle in a haystack (sorry my english)...

sorry if the section in which I published is not the correct one, but i don't know what's is the correct for this case... :)

 

[.Scott]

I'm not sure I understand your question.
But is this what you mean?

 

[Noob of the Maths]

I'm not sure I understand your question.
But is this what you mean?

something like that, I mean to locate it by yourself.

I read that it is impossible if it is not done by a professional... even in a 2x2 area...

 

[.Scott]

To do a thorough job, it depends on the how complicated the space is that you need to check. Before the "sweep" is done, electrical devices need to be shut down or removed - and then each of those devices need to be hand checked before putting it back. Those things include computers, phones, smoke detectors, lights electrical outlets, etc. So the more of those things you have, the more complicated it is.

For a thorough sweep, you should use a "non-linear junction detector" - which you can Google.

Perhaps the classical example is the 1980s bug search of the American Embassy in Moscow.

US counterintelligence eventually discovered that Soviet workers had secreted
a vast array of objects within the concrete used in the embassy structure, according
to congressional reports and State Department histories of the period. Listening
devices were just part of it. The workers had also thrown in unconnected diodes,
as well as wrenches, pipes, and other junk, to frustrate electronic scanners and
metal detection.

Some bugs were located at spots where metal I-beams were welded together.
Lengths of steel rebar had been altered to serve as transmitters. Buried within one
wall US inspectors found a sophisticated power source shaped like a bow tie, which
they dubbed “batwing.” US engineers decided a nearby Soviet house of worship
was suspicious—its lights would go on at odd times, and it seemed like a good spot
from which to oversee the embassy’s bugs.

Eventually they dubbed the edifice “The Church of Holy Telemetry.”

 

[Noob of the Maths]

To do a thorough job, it depends on the how complicated the space is that you need to check. Before the "sweep" is done, electrical devices need to be shut down or removed - and then each of those devices need to be hand checked before putting it back. Those things include computers, phones, smoke detectors, lights electrical outlets, etc. So the more of those things you have, the more complicated it is.

For a thorough sweep, you should use a "non-linear junction detector" - which you can Google.

Perhaps the classical example is the 1980s bug search of the American Embassy in Moscow.

Its not a complicated space, just a common house room where wall breaking is not an option. I am read that the bugs detectors its like a "Boy Toy", and a Junction detector its very expensive.

if you can't break a wall, and there are no holes that big, and only 1 piece of furniture, where would you put one of them?

 

[.Scott]

Its not a complicated space, just a common house room where wall breaking is not an option. I am read that the bugs detectors its like a "Boy Toy", and a Junction detector its very expensive.

if you can't break a wall, and there are no holes that big, and only 1 piece of furniture, where would you put one of them?

In your shoes.

 

[Baluncore]

something like that, I mean to locate it by yourself.

I read that it is impossible if it is not done by a professional... even in a 2x2 area...

The cheap optical lens detectors are built to detect cameras placed for the surveillance of guests in hotel rooms. The detectors work by seeing the light reflected from the surfaces of the lens. The illumination is by a narrow band LED, with the viewing port passing only the reflected LED wavelength. The lens of the hidden camera reflects a bright pin-point of light, like spiders eyes.

For property protection, to counter the optical detectors use decoys. Splash many small chips of retroreflective material and party glitter on an area adjacent to the camera. The camera must not be at the centre, but it should be in the decoy field. Use a few similar splashes without cameras to delay and waste the detectors time.
Another way is to install a long line of retro-reflectors, each with a hole punched in it. One of the reflectors has a camera behind the hole. The highly reflective material blinds the detector to the brightness of the hole.

If the cameras are wireless, place the antenna a couple of metres away, and on the other side of the wall.

Now a word of wisdom. You must always act as if you are being watched. A great stress reduction technique is to realize that you will only ever find the decoys, and never all the hidden bugs and cameras. Smile, you are always being watched. Act or play the part.

 

[Noob of the Maths]

The cheap optical lens detectors are built to detect cameras placed for the surveillance of guests in hotel rooms. The detectors work by seeing the light reflected from the surfaces of the lens. The illumination is by a narrow band LED, with the viewing port passing only the reflected LED wavelength. The lens of the hidden camera reflects a bright pin-point of light, like spiders eyes.

For property protection, to counter the optical detectors use decoys. Splash many small chips of retroreflective material and party glitter on an area adjacent to the camera. The camera must not be at the centre, but it should be in the decoy field. Use a few similar splashes without cameras to delay and waste the detectors time.
Another way is to install a long line of retro-reflectors, each with a hole punched in it. One of the reflectors has a camera behind the hole. The highly reflective material blinds the detector to the brightness of the hole.

If the cameras are wireless, place the antenna a couple of metres away, and on the other side of the wall.

Now a word of wisdom. You must always act as if you are being watched. A great stress reduction technique is to realize that you will only ever find the decoys, and never all the hidden bugs and cameras. Smile, you are always being watched. Act or play the part.

Oh! i now understand.

In fact... for a school display of the electronics class this topic jumped out at me and intrigued me.

So, for a experiment the team buy a very very little camera and put it in a very very very small room (without a person inside, sure).

The half of the team they should to find it (me including)... 1 hour and we don't find it...until we gave up...

This the diagram of the room:

-two small wooden shelves (red): all the books were removed and checked... with nothing found.
-Desktop (yellow): the surface is made of glass and the pc its right
-Little cloackroom wooden (green): the only way to put something is in the front view...maybe a hole...but we don't find anything.

The wall don't have holes and the electrick waves its not in the view...

Any suggestion?

 

[jedishrfu]

Any nail holes or screws or airflow grating?

 

[Rive]

This kind of fun worth it only if the camera actually woks in the meantime, and records something relevant: not the bored spiders in the corner, but the room itself.
So - are you even sure it's operational? Did the other team prove it?

What material is the floor, by the way?

 

[Noob of the Maths]

This kind of fun worth it only if the camera actually woks in the meantime, and records something relevant: not the bored spiders in the corner, but the room itself.
So - are you even sure it's operational? Did the other team prove it?

What material is the floor, by the way?

Yes, its operational. Before of the experiment we test it.

The floor its ceramic, imposible to break.

 

[Noob of the Maths]

Any nail holes or screws or airflow grating?

The only holes its the electric socket and a empty hole of a spotlight (maybe a photo help?)

The only site I can think is some very very very small hole in the swooden clockroom and the window framework (steel)... but its not anything

 

[jedishrfu]

The electrical sockets are potential spots.

 

[Vanadium 50]

The electrical sockets are potential spots.

This generation has lost something by not watching the original Mission: Impossible series. (The Tom Cruise movies miss the point - the IMF are not soldiers or spies. Fundamentally, they are con men) Barney Collier's favorite spots were electrical outlets.

 

[anorlunda]

I like best @Baluncore 's answer. No matter how it is hidden, a camera lens must gather light and therefore it must be exposed where it causes a reflection. Even in a electrical outlet, if you shine light into the hole and you see a reflection, that's a huge clue. A spy camera would need a remote control lens cap to avoid the reflection.

The detectors work by seeing the light reflected from the surfaces of the lens.

 

[Noob of the Maths]

I like best @Baluncore 's answer. No matter how it is hidden, a camera lens must gather light and therefore it must be exposed where it causes a reflection. Even in a electrical outlet, if you shine light into the hole and you see a reflection, that's a huge clue. A spy camera would need a remote control lens cap to avoid the reflection.

@Baluncore @jedishrfu

This is a very basic render of the room (yeah, its very very very small)

Sockets looks fine (green), the steel of swooden shelve too (black), the second electrical socket in the roof i put myself and i don't see anything...

Just have a little hole in the roof (red) and a 3rd empty electrical socket behind the column (up of the cloackroom)...

any idea?

 

[Rive]

Yes, its operational. Before of the experiment we test it.

I mean, are you sure it's there and in a meaningful place?

The floor its ceramic, imposible to break.

Any plastic liners around in the corners?

any idea?

Maybe the door? Keyhole?

If still nothing (and you were assured that it's there, in a position where it can see) then nothing else left, but to divide every surface and item to smaller areas with a pencil and check everything one by one...

 

[Noob of the Maths]

I mean, are you sure it's there and in a meaningful place?

yes it is definitely in the room.

Any plastic liners around in the corners?

All the liners are plastered.

Maybe the door? Keyhole?

The door is made of swood and the keyholehave insurance in the inside face of the room.

 

[jedishrfu]

This thread is rather like the blind men describing an elephant With OP saying no that’s not it.

My feeling is you already know where the spy cam since you’ve mentioned testing it so why are we trying to find it using drawings of a small room so far away in another galaxy?

 

[Noob of the Maths]

This thread is rather like the blind men describing an elephant With OP saying no that’s not it.

My feeling is you already know where the spy cam since you’ve mentioned testing it so why are we trying to find it using drawings of a small room so far away in another galaxy?

I mencionated that we tested just to know that works (obviously out of the room... like a unboxing), but i really don't know where it is.

 

[jedishrfu]

Have you looked at the floor or ceiling or outside a window?

There was a scheme of reflecting a laser on a window to listen to folks speaking inside.

Are there any spycams that imitate pinhole cameras ie with no lens?

 

[Noob of the Maths]

Have you looked at the floor or ceiling or outside a window?

There was a scheme of reflecting a laser on a window to listen to folks speaking inside.

Are there any spycams that imitate pinhole cameras ie with no lens?

Yes, i looked in floor and window. And yes, there are spycams with pinhole imitation.
is a very very very very small place literally with 2 pieces of wooden furniture. There definitely must be a way to locate it...

 

[Baluncore]

There definitely must be a way to locate it...

1. How do you know the camera was not removed after the test vision was recorded?
2. The camera may be in a duplicate room model. How do you know there is only one room?
3. A borescope, endoscope, or fiberscope can be very small, so it fits in the leg of furniture, with the remote lens in the edge of a sheet of card.

If you knew the answer, you would not ask the question.
If you do NOT know the answer, how can you tell us that our guess is wrong?
We must rely on your report to us, but you admit that you are blind.
“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king”.

The remote control of puppets spread across the globe, will not solve a local puzzle.

 

[sophiecentaur]

The detectors work by seeing the light reflected from the surfaces of the lens.

Sounds a bit like Red Eye from flash photography - only that works on light reflected from the retina and not the lens surface.
The light path must be reciprocal and image sensors are reflective. It would be a simple test to see if the red eye effect could be used.